On 23 Mar 98 at 10:54, Bill Swingle wrote:

> I believe that when you acquire a CD ROM with an IDE interface and
> you have a newer model machine you plug it in, configure CMOS and
> W95 recognizes it.

  CD-ROM drives are not generally configured in CMOS.  Win95 will
recognize and handle virtually all ATAPI/EIDE and SCSI CD-ROM drives
without additional drivers.

> If it does not recognize it you can put in the appropriate drivers
> and configure it in config.sys and autoexec.bat.   How about newer
> CD ROMs in older hardware such as 386 and 486 machines?  Where can
> I get details on installing CD ROMS on old and new machines?

  Although Win95 may recognize the drive, you may need to install a
driver through CONFIG.SYS (and MSCDEX in AUTOEXEC.BAT) if you want to
be able to access the drive from DOS.  It could be important to be
able to do this if you ever need to reinstall Win95....

> If I have an older 1X,2X,4X CD ROM and I don't have the original interface
> card can I still use the CD ROM?  Are they also IDE interface?

  Almost *no* CD-ROM drives have ever been "IDE"; most that appear to
claim to be actually require EIDE.  That's an issue you might run
into when trying to install to older machines.  EIDE controller cards
are available for ISA and VLB systems, in case you need to upgrade an
old machine.

  There used to be three or four other (proprietary) interfaces for
CD-ROM drives.  If you have an older drive which uses one of these
other interfaces, and plug it into an EIDE controller, your machine
will probably refuse to boot.  [It has in the cases that I've seen,
but I haven't personally seen every possible combination.  Other
undesirable behaviours are possible.]  So if the CD-ROM came with an
interface card, keep them together.

David G